Or at least he thinks he did. I was WOT for a few seconds the other day in front of him and he said he smelled something, most likely oil, burning. What could this be?

I have a stock '99 Z28. My clutch is not in tip top shape right now. In fact, its probably time for a new one. Could that be the burning he smelled?

The driver side brake pads need replaced. They keep whinning and screaching...do they cause a burning smell?

My serpentine belt needs replaced...are these things known to have a burning smell when they get towards the end of their life? My battery is charged and my heater works fine so I don't think thats where the smell is coming from.

My check oil gauge has been coming on continuously, even right after I changed my oil. So I figure its just something that needs to be reset.

Any help is appreciated, thanks...

 

Clutch and brakes smell the same, but not like burning oil. If your brakes are squeaking I'd take a look at them. Serpintine belts smell more like burning rubber if they slp TOO much, but you won't smell it in the cab or out side the car unless it REALLY bad, like a siezed pulley or something. Then it will sound like....well....spinning tires. As far as checking it's life, look at the under side of the belt, if it has more than five cracks in an inch- replace it. If it's dryrotted, it will be cracked like crazy. Stay away from belt dressings, just replace it.

As far as the burning oil smell, pop the hood and look for oil leaks, especially on the upper side of the exhaust manifolds. LS1's are not known for oil leaks. Check around the valve covers, if it drips down and comes in contact with the hot exhaust, you'll smell it. Check where the plastic oil fill mounts to the VC. If you friend smelled it in back of you it must have been bad. Internal oil burning emmits a blue smoke from the tail pipe, if you can see it it's bad.

Mabie he was smelling it from someone else's car.....

 

I know this is comparing apples and oranges but I guess it's food for thought. I have had two Crown Vics as patrol cars that leaked from the rear of the head gaskets down onto the exhaust. The leaks were very hard to see and only really occurred during wide open throttle. When I would turn on a car and chase it down, when I would get back into my car, that was when I could smell the burnt oil and it never did it any other time. They ended up having the head gaskets replaced. I know, different motors, but it could possibly be the same type fo thing. It's obviously getting on the exhaust somewhere to get teh burnt smell so it may be a valve cover gasket or a situation like I described.

 

He doesn't exactly know what burning oil smells like. He asked me at first if I had lost traction and if the smell was from my tires doing a burnout or something. So he doesn't really know the difference between different burning smells. He just assumed that it was oil.

 

I don't know if I would worry about it that much then. If you said that your clutch has been slipping, I bet that is what he was smelling. If you have been having an oil leak, I'm sure that you would have smelt it by now.

 

Could have just unsettled a carbon deposit and shot it out the exhaust.